
aii TVWwJl (la>-t>vt.U._ CA,n>u-a^JL ^ 






Glass. 
Book. 






■€^ 3E1, ^aiL *3P i: o> ]pflr 



DELIVERED BY 



^ 



HON. J. U. BAILEY 




AT 



:m:m cakroll, cakroll couFry, illims, 



JULY 4th. 1867. 






<^y 



^ 



FRBEPORT, II^iaNOIS: 

JOURNAL STEAM PRINT. 

3867. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 

tfA^r T AT tsatt...^ tt ^ T„ Mount Cakiioll, III., Jul V J-5, 'G7. 

atoiv. J. M. Bailey, Free])ort, III. < . > ' 

7^<^r Sir :-The undersigned residents of Carroll Countv, wlio listened to your 

■ .dress at Mount Carroll on the 4th of July instant, beg leave to express to vou 

jr high appreciation of your effort on that occasion, and respectfully requc^st of 

cu a copy of your address for publication in order to gratify ourselves as well 

s a large number of our citizens who could not be present to hear it Hopino- 

/ou wdl find no sufficient reason for withholding it from puhlication, 

We are, sir, very respectfully and truly yours, &c., 

?f; Vaxdagkift, Nki.so.-c r-'r,KTcHT:K, 

\\ M. H. Wri.DKY, y.ACK r.;K d- (^t'.vx, 

JosEi'Hrs Smith, h. j. r»KiFFnn 

If. BiTXER. B. p. SirfHK. ' 

JoHX Irvine, .Irt., Wm. i'i.a j;k 
H. S. Bkaijley, V. AU.-ITOIK. 

D. 1», l.H'HTV. 



^, ,, \ Fkeefort, July 16, I8f57. 

^re,iflemen:~Jn compliance with your request I herewith transmit to vou for 
puhhcation, my address delivered at Mount Carroll on the 4th day of Ju]^• 
matant. Thanking you for your expressions of appreciation, I am, 

Very truly yours. 

To Messrs. H. \ andagnft, Nelson 'Fletcher, and others. 









Wliy is it, Mr. President, that I see be- 
fore me so Jarge an as.semb!a.y:e of my 
fellow-citizens on this occasion ? What 
common motiv<?, what pervading- im- 
pulse, has brout^ht us together to-day? 
Why this holiday attire, tnese voices" of 
gladness, and this festive cheer ? What, 
sir, are tiie events ; what, sir, the ideas 
which we thus coinoieujorate ? Why is 
it that not only here but everywhere, 
wherever that lias* is flun^ to the breeze, 
or there beats a loyal American heart, 
the booming of cannon, the rolling of 
drums, the unfurHng of banners, and 
the raany-tongued voices of eloqueiice 
and song are invoked to "give utterance 
to the great swelling patriotic emotions 
which arise in the hcivrtsof the American 
people upon the recurrence of this our 
great national anniversary? 

We are here to celebrate that sublime 
event in history which severed our politi- 
cal relations v.ith the mother country 
and secured for us a name and a place 
among the nations of the earth. We 
have met to commemorate the patriot- 
isui and chivalrous devotion with which 
the fathers of the Revolution, braving 
the insolent and relentless despotism of 
the British crown, })ledged their lives, 
their fortunes and their sacred honor to 
the achievement and maintenance of our 
independence. And we are here to eora- 
jneraorate the unswerving fidelity with 
which in the face of difficulties uiid dis- 
couragements, before which the stoutest 
heart might well sink and the bravest ! 
cheek blanch with dread and appreheu- { 
siMi, that pledge was redeemed and our 
nation forever freed from the yoke of 
British oppression. ! 

We have met, sir, to celebrate these I 
glorious traditions of the llevolution, 
and to do honor to the memory of those 
brave and intrcDid men who fought the ' 
early battles of the Republic and achieved | 
our independence* 13ut, sir, this great j 
national anniversary comes to us fraught 
witii a deeper meanii^- and a higher sig- ' 



nificance. The Declaration of Independ- 
ence was more than a mere i^olitical rev- 
olution. It was more than a mere forci- 
ble disruption of the political ties be- 
tween the British Empire and her Amer" 
ican Colonies. It was a declaration' 
made in the interest of all humanity. 
It was a revolution against the encroach- 
ments of despotic power, and tiie grand 
assertion of the right of nian to self-gov- 
ernment, made not merely in the inter- 
est of a single generation or people, 
but made for the entire world of man- 
kind, and fo'.' all the generations that are 
to come. Such, sir, are the thoughts 
which the day we celebrate is caicuiate<:l 
to stir up witliin us. Such are tiie soul- 
stirring andsublimetruths coming down 
to us to<lay from the past, and forcing 
themselves upon our consideration. 

Let us rejoice, my feiJow-citizens, that 
we are permitted to celebrate this day. 
Let us rejoice in the glorious memories 
that come down to us from the days of 
the Revolution and cluster thick about 
US on every hand. Let us rejoice that 
"the Tree of Liberty planted by our 
fathers and watered with their blood" has 
withstood the tempest of war which so 
lateiy burst upon it. Let us thanlc God 
that we still have a country — that the 
foundations laid broad and deep by the 
fathers of the Republic, have withstood 
the blasts of partizan strife and the rude 
shock of civil Avar. We meet here to- 
day beneath the bright sun and smiling 
skies, and the irentle breath of summer 
murmurs softly about us. Fitting em- 
blems these of the present happy condi- 
tion of our country. Our Nation's sky 
so lately overcast, by the dark and por- 
tentous clouds of war, and rent by tiw 
fierce shock of contending hosts, has bro- 
ken away on every hand, and the bright 
sun of peace is streaming through liLs 
floods of light and hope. Peace reigns 
thrqugh all our borders. The mighty 
armies, .whose tramp for these years has 
shaken the continent, are no longer in 



the field. The horrid enginery of war 
which, upon a hundred battle-fields, has 
reaped down the fell harvests of death, 
has forgotten its hideous commerce. 
Brother no longer lifts his hand against 
brother in fratricidal strife. The noise 
of battle is no longer heard, and that 
glorious old flag, stained with no dis- 
honor, and without one star erased, now 
proudly floats over every rood of our 
national territory, from Maine to the 
Rio Grande. I thank God that I have 
lived to see this day. I thank God that 
in this year of Grace, 1867, I am an 
American citizen. If in that elder day 
of Roman pride and power to be a Ro- 
man was better than to be a King^ so to- 
day the name of American citizen is a 
prouder title than can be conferred upon 
any man by the princes of the earth. 

It is befitting that we come together 
from year to year, upon the annual re- 
turn of this day, and muse upon the les- 
sons which its history teaches us. It is 
befitting that we call to mind its hero- 
isms and its sacrifices— its battles, its de- 
feats, and its victories— that we mark well 
the unfaltering purpose, the high resolve 
aiid the contempt of danger and death 
with which our patriot sires persevered 
through that long and arduous stru2:gle, 
until their efibrts were crowned at length 
with victory. Wholesome are the les- 
sons which that history teaches. It is 
befitting that we keep green the mem- 
ory of the heroism displayed on Bunker 
Hill, at Saratoga, and at Yorktown; 
that we recall the patient endurance with 
which our fathers tracked with shoeless 
feet the snows of Valley Forge. I 
would that that history were more deep- 
ly engraven upon the memories of the 
men of this generation. I M'ould that 
we might oftener contemplate the spec- 
tacle of such heroism, such fortitude, 
such patriotic devotion. I would that 
our national councils had to-day a .Jef- 
ferson, a Hancock, an Adams, a .Jav, a 
Hamilton or a Patrick Henrv. I would 
that the mantle of Washington might 
fall upon the chieftain of to-day, that 
the wisdom which then foshioned our 
institutions might now give shape to 
the destinies of the Republic. 

The Declaration of Independence has 
just been read in your hearing. You 
have listened to that long catalogue of 
abuses and usurpations, undertaken and 
persistently followed out by the witless 
tyrant who sat calmly weaving the web 
of our enslavement in the palace of St. 



James. You have listened to the story 
of kingly prerogative, irresponsible and 
despotic disregarding, one after another, 
the time-honored guaranties, and over- 
i throwing with a rutiiless hand the bul- 
warks of political freedom. The chart- 
ers, laws and forms of government, 
under which the American colonies had 
grown from feeble beginnings to poj)u- 
lous and powerful commonwealths, were 
arbitrarily taken away or fundamen- 
tally altered. The administration of 
justice in all its forms and departments 
was obstructed or made subservient to 
the purposes of arbitrary power. Bur- 
dens, unusual and oppressive, and un- 
warranted by law, were remorselessly 
laid upon the necks of the devoted colo- 
nists. All the elements of political pow- 
er in the colonies, whether legislative, 
ministerial or judicial, were one after 
another gathered up and absorbed in an 
iri'esponsible and overshadowing kingly 
perogative, evincing a design on the 
part of the British crown of bringing 
those colonies forever beneath the heel 
of an absolute despotism. Thus was 
the issue made up between the doctrine 
of despotic authority and unlimited pre- 
rogative on the one hand, represented by 
Geoi'ge the Third, and the doctrine of 
innate God-given rights on the other, 
represented by the oppressed and down- 
trodden Colonies. On the one side was 
the political establishment, entrenched 
behind the despotic maxim of the " Di- 
vine right of Kings;" and, on the other, 
a political philosophy, founding lawful 
government only on the consent of the 
governed. On such an issue our fathers, 
appealing to the dispassionate judgment 
of mankind and to the God of battles, 
assembled in Congress and solemnly put 
forth to the world the immortal Declar- 
ation of Independence. Then first in 
the history of man were clearly enunciat- 
ed and i)ut into form the great 
fundamental principles of self-govern- 
ment. Then and there luonan right!< — in- 
nate God-given rights, — the rights of man 
as man, achieved their first great crown- 
rng victory. Then it was thatour fathers, 
breaking loose from the traditions and 
entanglements of old sj'stems, and giv- 
ing the lie to the despotic dogmas and 
political maxims of Europe, such as the 
Divine right of Kings to rule, the sub- 
ordination of ranks, classess and castes, 
the subordination of the many to the 
few,- breaking loose, I say, from all 
these, our fathers set up a system having 



for its corner stone tlie maxim that gov- 
ernments derive their just powers from 
the consent ofthe go verned,and for its liv- 
ing principle the self-evident truth that 
all men are created equal and endowed 
by their Creator with inalienable rights 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. Then was it that our Withers, il- 
lumined as it wei'e by an inspiration 
from Heaven, gave to us a political sys- 
tem embodying the highest and noblest 
civilization that had yet been wrought 
out, and on whose ample banner there 
even now floats the last syllable of pro- 
gress that has yet been written. They 
put forth to the world a truth not the 
peculiar property of one nation or race 
of men, not aT)plicable merely to this 
new trans- Atlantic civilization, but a 
truth lying at the foundation of all 
rightful human government everywhere, 
and answering the indefinite, unuttered 
yearnings of all of earth's unnumbered 
millions. The nations heard it with joy, 
as the returning exile from childhood 
first listens to the scarcely remembered 
accents of his mother tongue. 

The Declaration of Independence ! 
Immortal achievement ! Let the eye wan- 
der back for a moment along the track 
of those centuries whose vague and un- 
uttered longings for justice and liberty 
first found definite shape and expression 
in this memorabledocument. Theworld 
had been groping for centuries in the 
darkness of oppression. Mankind were 
bound down by a thousand subtle max- 
ims spun from the fallacious web of a 
despotic philosophy. They were fet- 
tered by an artificial system of feudal 
servitudes and subordinations. They 
were fettered by the craft of kings on 
the one hand, and on the other by the 
craft of the priesthood. A despotic po- 
litical system denied all rights in man, 
save those derived from the king as the 
fountain head, who arrogantly assumed 
to rule by Divine right. A despotic 
system of religion denied the right to 
worship God, save in the forms prescrib- 
ed by a haughty priesthood, who im- 
piously claimed to be God's vicegerents 
on earth in matters of faith and wor- 
ship. But despite all the teaching.'* of a 
despotic philosophy the voice of the 
God-like in man, unsilenced still, whis- 
pered to the secret soul of rights unbe- 
stowed by kings or pontiffs,— rights not 
the paltry gift of hereditary legislators 
— rights not conferred by edicts, cliar- 
ters or constitutions, but anterior to and 



above all constitutions and laws,— rights 
inherent and tinderlved, the direct and 
naunificentgift of God in our creation. 
Again and again had the downtrod- 
den millions of Europe appealed in vain 
t'yra recognition of these inherent rights 
until at length, in the Providence of 
God, the wilderness of the new world 
opened to man an asylum from oppres- 
sion. Hither came our fatliors — men 
whose heroic spirits scorned to bow at 
the footstool of despotic authority. They 
came not from the halls of wealth and 
luxury, where servility crooks the preg- 
nant hinges of the knee that thrift may 
follow fawning. They were men whose 
proud spirit.s chafed beneath the yoke of 
servitude, and who were willing "to dare 
and to brave the privations of a wilder- 
ness home, if so be they might there li\ 
N'uti/re''s own freemen. Proudly the 
come, and the rocky shores of Plj 
mouth first echo to the "tread of pio 
neers" — 

" A nation yet to be, 

The first low iiiuniiurings of a wave, 

Where yet must roll ahuiu'aii sea." 

"Net as tlie coiii4ueror comes; 

They, the true-hearted, came 
Not wifh the roll of the stirring drum, 

And tiie trumpet that sings of fame. 
No! as the Hying come. 

In Silence and in fear; 
They shook tlie depths of the desert gloom, 

With tlieir hymns of lofty cheer. 

"What soug'ut they thus afar? 

Jiright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas? the spoils of war? 

Thev sought a ;aith"s pure shrine. 
Ay, call it holy ground 

The soil where iirst tiiey trod. 
They left unstained what there they found — 

Freedom to Worship God." 

I love to contemplate the mysterious 
ways of Providence, in opening here in 
the new world the arena in which is^to 
be finally wrought out the great prob- 
lem of human rights. While Freedom 
in the old world was hopelessly crushed 
beneath the inextricable complication of 
old systems and old opinions here in a 
new organization of society and its in- 
stitutions that Freedom had scope and 
opportunity to assert itself and enforce 
recognition. It was an organization of 
.society 6// ///e people and for the people. 
Here sprung up the germ of a new and 
nobler civilization. Instead of a grada- 
tion of ranks and castes, here the poor- 
est and the humblest stood up the peer 
of the noblest. Here were nourished 
freedom of thought, of opinion and of 
conscience. And when the struggle at 
length came between the old and des- 



potic civilization of Europe, and this 
civilization permeated all througli with 
the spirit of human freedom, and finally 
consecratetl by the baptism blood upon 
the field.s of Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
our fathers stood up in the simple ma- 
jesty of truth, and appealing to the Su- 
preme Judge of the world for the recti- 
tude of their intentions put solemnly 
upo!i record befoi-e all the world their 
immortal declaration of human rights. 
They declared as self-evident truths that 
all inea are created equal, and endowed 
by their Creator with inalienable rights, 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness, and that to secure those 
risrhts, governments are instituted 
among men deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed. In 
making this declaration they drew their 
theories not from the established schools 
of political wisdom so long recognized 
as authority in matters of human gov- 
ernment, but catching tlieir inspiration 
directly from the voice of God, speaking 
through the consciousness of every man, 
they sent forth tljeir declaration to the 
world as a new Evangel of human 
rights. 

They startled, by the boldnes of tlieir 
conceptions, <he letliargie dreamers of 
the old world, and the despots of Eu- 
rope, though intrenched l)ehiud their 
long established prerogatives, beheld in 
this declaration the handwriting upon 
the wall denoting that their systems had 
been weighed in the balance of Eternal 
Truth and found wanting. But the 
poor and the downtrodden everywhere 
liaiied it as an omen of good. It stood 
out and so may i^ ever stand as a beacon 
light to- all the world, catching from 
aiar the desparing gaze of the downtrod- 
den ones of earth, betok<»ning hope and 
promise to all, inviting to our shores the 
oppressed of every nation and clime, 
and accomplishing at length,' not by 
bloodshed and concpiest, those means by 
which despots enlarge the borders of 
their empires, but by the influence of a 
noble example, of a pure civilization 
and of institutions cemented in the aff- 
ections of a united and loyal people the 
})oHtical regeneration of the race. 

Be it ever ours, my countrymen, to 
stand by the principles of this declara- 
tion. Be it ever ours to plant ourselves 
lirmly upon the doctrine of the inalien- 
able rights 6f man, guarding well the in- 
tegrity of those princii^les which our fa- 
thers taught us, and watching jealously 



against every attempt from whatever 
quarter to corrupt or overreach upon 
them. 

The political institutions of any peo- 
ple, whatever they maybe, are in the 
nature of things aggressive. in this 
commercial age,— this age of rapid and 
continuous interchange of thought be- 
tween the remotest corners of the earth, 
the springs of political. life in any one na- 
tion are continually, though it may be 
silently, permeating and transforming 
the whole civilization of the world. — 
Nations as well as individuals, have, in 
the Providence of God, their distinctive 
missions to perform in tlie advancement 
of civilization and the elevation of- the 
human race. Nations are but represen- 
tatives of great ideas underlying the po- 
litical and social well-being of nuan; and 
in the progressive development of the 
history of a nation does the great idea of 
which that nation is the representative 
gradually work itself out and impress 
itself upon the customs, the habits of 
thought, the institutions and the civil- 
ization of the human race. Ijook at the 
emnire of old Rome when sitting en- 
throned in the scveu-hilled city, the des- 
potic Csesar ruied the v.-orld. The great 
idea of winch th.e Iloman Empii-e was 
the repr; > was that of absoluU\ 

unconiro 'onffibfe, rec/al author i- 

ft/, an idea iiiiy represented in the vis- 
ion of the prophet Daniel as the empire 
of iron. Rome lived out her day and 
performed her mission, and the great 
idea of despotic authority developed to 
its utmost limit remained for centuries- 
the ruling spirit — the controlling ole- 
juent of the civilization of the world. — 
Look at the mighty Empire of Charles 
v., the great representative of religious 
fanaticism and papal intolerence— 
Though that Empire crumbled to frag- 
ments the moment its master spirit ex- 
changed his throne for a cloister, yet it 
existed long enough to bequeath to man- 
kind the SparuSh Inquisition, and to 
evoke and let loose upon the world the 
fell deuion of religious persecution, 
wliose thirst for blood could not be 
slaked even by a St. Bartholom.ew m;xs- 
sacre. Our nation too has its distinctive 
mission, — a mission, however, not to en- 
slave men but to free them — not to on- 
chain the conscience but to enfranchise 
it— not to assert the doctrine of prerog- 
ative in kin.^s but of innate rights in 
man. In this great struggle which for 
these many centuries has been going on, 



between despotic poM'er on the one hand 
and the inalienable rights of man on the 
other, God has at length raised up and ap- 
pointed this nation fo become the great 
champion of the rights of man. He has 
appointed us to the ultimate develop- 
ment of the great fundimental idea of 
individual rights — rights bestowed on 
man at his creation and which no au- 
thority on eartli can rightfully take 
away. This is the great idea wliich we 
as a nation represent. It is the idea 
which permeates and gives charac- 
ter to all our institutions. TalvC it away 
and those institutions are robbed of their 
inner life and our history of its mean- 
ing. You might as well attem])t to blot 
the sun from the creation, or Christ from 
the Bible, as to take from our nation 
this great pervading idea. And when 
this idea shall meef its full and ultimate 
development, and its final results are 
bequeathed to humanity, -^when this 
great problem of self-government shall 
be finally solved for all time and for all 
men, and the dross of old systems be 
transmuted into the pure gold of righte- 
ous government, — then, and not till 
then, will this nation have accomplish- 
ed its mission and fulfilled the destiny 
to which God hath ajipointed lier. 

I have thus traced at some length the 
mysterious ways of Providence in plant- 
ing and raising up a nation here in the 
new world prepared for the accomplish- 
_ment of this great work. I have allu- 
"ded to our gradual growth from a few 
feeble colonies to populous and jiower- 
ful States, until, on the 4th day of July, 
1776, in the fullness of time, we were 
called upon to put on the armor of this 
great warfare. Worthy were the fath- 
ers of the Revolution of the high voca- 
tion wherewith they were called. They 
fought the good fight, and now that they 
have finished their course, there is 
henceforth and to all time laid up for 
them a crown of imperishable glory, 
freely, nay, reverently accorded them 
by a grateful posterity. They have laid 
down the weapons of their warfare and 
hkve passed away to their reward. But 
the mighty struggle goes on. Between 
Freedom and Oppression, the two great 
contending forces, the antagonism is ir- 
reconcilable. There is an " irrepressible 
conflict,,'''' a necessary and inevitable 
warfare between Freedom and Oppres- 
sion. They are necessarily hostile, and 
wherever they co-exist, whether in the 
same commonwealth or in separate na- 



tions, there is of necessity hostility, an- 
tagonism, conflict. This'mighty strug- 
gle has come down to us from former 
generations, and it must go on until Op- 
j^ression shall be vanquished and Free- 
dom become finally and universally tri- 
umphant. 
I AVe stand to-day, ray fellow-citizens, 
I at the auspicious close of another and a 
I most notable chapter of this same great 
i normal contest on behalf of Freedom 
I and Humanity. During the last few 
I years our nation has grappled in a life 
I and death struggle with the most stu- 
j pendens insurrection of modern times. 
j War has been waged upon us upon 
i a scale having scarcely a parallel in 
history. Armies outnumbering by 
far, the mightiest hosts marshalleJi 
upon the bloodiest battle-fields of 
Eurojje, have been called into the 
field. Battles have succeeded eacli 
other in rapid succession-, many oi 
which, in resjject of numbers engaged, 
the desperate valor displayed and the 
terrible carnage produced have taken the 
foremost rank among'the world'd great 
battles. 

Much lias been said about the causes oi 
this war. Much needless speculation 
has been indulged in as to who wert 
re.sponsibie in bringing this wai 
about, and as to how its terrible visita- 
tion might have been altogether averted 
I do not propose in the least to palliai^ 
or excuse the guilt of those men w'ho. 
by a causeless and unholy rebellioii 
against a beneficient government, open- 
ed upon us the floodgates of war and 
sent forth desolation and bloodshed to 
hold high carnival for four years, over 
half a continent. Fallen human nature 
knows no crime of deeper dye than 
that committed by those men, who pur- 
posely and of their malice aforethought 
brought on this war. Let their names 
be blotted out and their memories be 
forever accursed. Let the vengeance of 
the broken law si)eedily evertake them, 
and palsied be the hand tliat would seek- 
to interpose any sh ield betu-een them and 
the doom of a traitor. But, fellow citi- 
zens, I may be permitted to say that we 
must look for the real, ultimate cause of 
this war, not in Northern agitation nor 
Southern fanaticism, but in that great 
fact, lying back of and beneath all 
these, that the two great antagonistic 
forces of Freedom and Slavery stood 
confronting each other upon the soil of 
the Republic. Are we at a loss to dis- 



cover why this war came upon us, when 
there were existing in our nation ele- 
ments, n-hich, by the law of inevitable ne- 
cessiti/, MVST FIGHT? It Huitters little 
who or Avhat was the immediate cause of 
the conflict, since while these two con- 
tend in <? forces co-existed the war itself 
was inevitable. It is possible that less 
boldness of denunciation at the North, 
and less bitterness of invective at the 
J^outh, iTiight have delayed it for a sea- 
son ; but come it muM. It may be that 
compromises and emollients skillfully 
applied might have baffled it and de- 
layed it for a while; bur nothing short 
of the hand of the Omnipotent could 
have averted its final coming. It is 
idle for ais to speculate as to the merely 
accidental instruments in precipitating 
the conflict. So long as right and wrong 
must of necessity fight, he is the real 
author of the conflict, by whose agency 
the wrong exists. So, in the ju'lgrnent of 
impartial history, will the real guilt of 
this terri hie war rest with crushing weight 
upon those men North or South, who- 
ever they may be, bj' whose agency or 
countenance the iniquitous system of 
human slavery had its existence or had 
l>een nurtured into strength. This war 
is no mere accident in history. It is not 
a thing which iriiglit or miglit not have 
taken place, and still have left the great 
moral questions of the age the same. 
This war is i)ut another cha})ter in the 
great normal conflict in which we have 
been cinharked from our earliest history, 

vnd which it is the mission of this na- 
tion to carry on. It is but another 
■;iTapplin2: of the same giant forces be- 
tween whom is being waged this i)er- 
pi^tual warfare in behalf of the inaliena- 
l>le rights of man. It is useless to look 
\t the ostensible issues upon which either 
party — the North or the South— ein- 
iiarked in this war. It makes no differ- 

■nce what were the pretenses put for- 
^'.'ard, or the principles declared upon 
which the parties assumed to undertake 
and carry the war on. I know that du- 
ring the* early months of the rebellion 

>oth parties strove to ignore the great 

noprd questions which were really the 
I^isis of the controversy. The South 
Slid : " W" are fighting forour independ- 
r«cf, andnot for the perpetuity of our 
li'^culiar institutions." The North said : 
'We are fighting for national unity, and 
not for the overthow of slavery." It 
was assumed in the outset by both par- 
ties that the war had nothing to do 



with the iniquitous system, and that re- 
sult as it might, that system would re- 
main intact. How utterly vain and 
shortsighted proved all sucli theoi-ies of 
the nature of the contest, and the real 
purposes which the war was destined to 
subserve. Behind all these theories, 
behind all congressional resolutions and 
official manifestos, these two mighty 
forces — Freedom and D_'Spotism were 
the real parties arrayed in the contest, k 
shaping and controlling all its issues, 
and it was not until the North came to 
understand the real nature of the strug- 
gle and to array herself unreservedly 
upon the side of Freedom and Human- 
ity that a just and beneficient Provi- 
dence vouchsafed to us the victory. 

As in the days of the Revolution, so 
now Freedom on the one hand and Op- 
pression on the other were the real par- 
ties to this controversy. The same 
great principles which were involved in 
the war of 'our Independence, have a 
second time been fought over in the war 
that has just closed. The same holy 
cause that nerved thearms of our brave 
sires at Banker Hill, at Saratoga, and at 
Yorktown, also nerved the arms of their 
no less gallant descendants at Chatta- 
nooga and Antietam and Gettysburgh, 
The war of the rebellion was a war un- 
dertaken by the South, not so much 
upon the administration of our govern- 
ment as upon the princii^les upon which 
that government rests. It was a reac- 
tion, not against the election of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, but against the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence. 
Alexander H. Stephens pronounced 
slavery to be the corner stone of the 
Confederacy, and the Richmond Enquir- 
er, the oificial organ of Jefferson Davis, 
early in the war held such language as 
this': 

"The establishment of the Confeder- 
"acy is verily adistinctr^ac('/o;? against 
"the whole course of \\\e mistaken cirili- 
'■'■zation of the age. For liberty, eqaliti/, 
^[frafernify, ice have deliberately substifu- 
'■''ted slavery.^'' 

A reaction against the civilization of 
the atre ! What civilization ? What is 
the distinctive civilization of the age? 
It is the civilization of liberty, equality 
and fraternity, for which they deliber- 
ately substituted slavery. It is the civ- 
ilization which we are here to celebrate 
to-day. It is the civilization of our im- 
mortal Declaration ot Independence, 
the civilization of indefeasible, innate, 



God-given rights. As I said before, the 
principles which nerved the hearts of 
our fathers to strike for liberty or death, 
also nerved the loyal hostsof this second 
great revolution in behalf of self-govern- 
ment, to strike for the sacred birthright 
that God has given us; '*to strike for 
the green graves of our sires, God and 
our native land." God from the begin- 
ning has ordained this land to be thea- 
tre upon which is to be finally settled 
this great problem ot human rights, 
and in the war that has recently closed 
has the same cause that achieved 
its earliest triumphs upon the battle- 
fields of the Revolution gained a second 
great crowning victory. In this war we 
have done more than put down a mere 
insurrection against our political estab- 
lishment. We have done more than 
subdue a revolt of a portion of our ter- 
ritory. We have done more, infinitely 
more, than merely vindicate the integrity 
of our geographical boundaries. These 
results we have achieved, it is true, and 
they are indeed results which, of them- 
selves, will repay all the blood and toil 
and treasure we have expended in this 
war. But we have done infinitely 
more ; we have achieved a victory in be- 
half of principles as sacred as the truth of 
God, and as far reaching as humanity ^ 

It is fitting that to-day, the day sacred 
to Freedom, we rejoice and exult over 
the downfall of the rebellion, and the 
eternal overthrow of those principles of 
despotism of which that rebellion was 
the representative. Let us rejoice that 
it has been made the high prerogative of 
the men of to-day to give practical sig- 
nificance to the great catholic utterance 
of the Declaration of Independence, that 
' ''all men are created equals It has been 
our high prerogative to prove that this 
declaration it not what is has been sneer- 
ingly termed, "a string of glittering gen- 
eralities,'''' but the enunciation of great 
practical truths, finding their realization 
in the institutions of our country regen- 
erated and purified through the fiery 
ordeal of war. Let us rejoice that our 
nation is to-day not merely in profession 
but in truth the representative of free 
thought, free speech, free institutions, free 
men. 

Ninety-one years have passed away 
since our country took its place among 
the nations of the earth. From a few 
feeble colonies, skirting the Atlantic sea- 
board, we have spread our civilization 
and authority in a broad zone across the 



continent, until upon the farthest Pa- 
cific slopes the chosen emblem of our na- 
tionality now waves over mighty States. 
In population, in intelligence, in materi- 
al wealth,[in thedeveloperaentof thearts 
in all the material of national greatness, 
we have made advancement in a ratio 
unparalleled in the history of this or any 
other age. Our flag is known and hon- 
ored on every sea and in every port. 
By a wise, judicious and patriotic ad- 
ministration of the internal affairs of 
our government for so long a period of 
years, our institutions have become ma- 
tured and solidified, and the individual 
prosperity and happiness of our citizens 
fostered and protected to a degree un- 
equaled in any other part of the civilized 
world. In foreign wars we have shown 
ourselves able to cope with the strongest, 
and in the supi^ression of the late rebell- 
ion we have been able to give the last 
crowning proof of the strength of our 
form of government. 

The severest test to which any nation 
can be subjected, is the test of civil war. 
When the elements of this great rebell- 
ion weregathering, and the storm clouds 
of civil war begun to lift themselves up 
above our national horizon, the wisest 
and most farseeing were filled with 
doubt and apprehension as to the result. 
We were entering upon realities untried, 
yet big with awful responsibilities. — 
We looked to the past and it furnished 
us with no safe chart to guide us over 
the untried sea of (;ivil war. Expedi- 
ents w'ithout number, diverse and con- 
tradictory, were proposed and urged by 
loyal statesmen. We had long been a 
peaceful nation. War had to us peculiar 
horrors. Many of our best men were 
seemingly ready to go almost to the 
verge of surrendering our national honor 
to avert it. Long used to quiet and the 
refinements of peacful life, our people 
had learned to look with aversion upon 
scenes of violence and bloodshead. 
Where were now the heroic daring 
and the martial ardor, out of which 
might spring up the armies to fight 
the battles of the Republic? The 
hosts of treason vainly imagined 
that the courage, intrepidity and hero- 
ism of the fathers of the Revolution 
had died out in the hearts of their peace- 
ful descendants. Fatal mistake and de- 
lusion! Those martial qualities were 
not dead, they only slept, and it needed 
only the call of an imperilled country to 
wake them to terrible energy. When 



10 



5rst the cry of "treaso>'" rang through 
the land, and the tocsin of war summon- 
ed the patriot hosts to the rescue of their 
countr.y, our fathers, brothers, sons, long 
used though they were to peace, and 
surrounded by the endearments of home, 
started up from city and hamlet, from 
mountain and prairie, all over the broad 
landand in unnumbered hosts inarched to 
the defence of P>eedom and their coun- 
try. Fvoni every portion of the teeming 
North, from all classes and occupations, 
the husbandman from his plow, the 
stnith from his anvil, the weaver from 
Ids loom, the merchant from his storr ,, 
the lawyer from his office, the preacher 
of the Gospel from the sacred desk, the 
rich, the poor, the learned, the unlearn- 
ed,— all moved by one simultaneous 
overmastering impulse, rushed to the 
r'\nks of the patriot army. By one 
!*oontaneons upheaval a mighty host, 
outnujuberhig by far the proudest ar- 
mies that had ever trod the soil of mod- 
'rn Europe, gathered themselves to bat- 
tie. Witli one single impulse pervad- 
ing all, and moved by an enthusiasm 
sublimerthan that which nerved the 
Puritan soldiers of Cromwell to fight the 
battles of God and the Commonwealth, 
their serred ranks were filled in unbro- 
ken phalanx as they marclied to the 
(conflict. Mightier hosts bv far than ev- 
er owned the sway of the first Napoleon, 
larger armies than those which decided 
the destinies, of the world on the great 
bjUtlefields of history, were gathered 
trtg^ether. The civilized world looked 
<"n with awe and amazement as a peace- 
1 Jl population became transibrmed as by 
i-.iracle into a nation of martial heroes. 
They went not forth in search of gain 
ijor in quest of adventure. They went 
forth moved by a stern conviction of 
imperative patriotic duty. They went 
forth because their country— that coun- 
try which they loved better than ease 
.Tud home and the dear objects of do- 
mestic love, was in danger. They went 
forth because the principles of Freedom 
and truth were in Jeopardy — because 
tho.-^e institutions upon whichj hung the 
hopes of earth's unnumbered millions 
v^ere threatened with overthrow. Search 
all the records of the past, and you will 
fail to find another chapter "in the 
world's history possessing the moral sub- 
limity of this great uprising in behalf of 
ourimperrillcd institutions. 

Gallantly did our citizen soldiery go 
forth to the conflict, and gallantly did 



they persevere in the contest until their 
etforts were crowned at length with vie 
tory. F(jr four long weary years the 
terrible war continued. We had our 
victories and our defeats, our times or re- 
joicing and our times of darkness and 
despondencj'. Somtimes the surcharged 
clouds of war liu ng heavy and threaten- 
ing on every lumd, and hope in the 
heart of the nation almost died out. But 
amid all, our brave soldiers stood firm 
and unmoved at their T)osts. On a hun- 
dred battle-fields, where the dread en- 
ginery of war reaped its fell harvest 
fro in the seried ranks, they bared their 
brows full in death's face; and a hundred 
battle fields have been rendc->red sacred 
to all time by tlie heroic ashes of their 
slain. Thousands upon thouvsands of our 
brave boys sleep in soldiers' graves upoTi 
the soil which their valor has redeemed, 
and the humble slabs which mark 
the places of their interment i)oint in 
solemn silence from the place of their 
ashes to the repose of their souls. Brave 
men! Heroic dead! Nobly hav6 they 
fallen. They have passed frojn their la- 
bors and conflicts oii earth, but the glo- 
rious results of their achieven.ients still 
live. They have not fought or died in 
vain. Be it ours to cherish in ]>erpetual 
greenness their memories, to emulat<^ 
their patriotism, to revere their sublime 
sacrifices, and to preserve and protect 
for all time those immortal truths in de- 
fence of which they have so gallantly, 
and so freely ottered up their lives. — 
Posterity will honor them, the world 
will honor them, and the bright halo of 
glory that siiall cjicircle the brow of the 
patriot dead shall only grow brighter and 
more glorious as years advance and the 
grand results of their labors and sacri- 
fices are developed. 

I see before me, too, those of our in- 
trepid soldiery M'ho having finished well 
the service to which their country called 
them, have now returned again to our 
midst. Welcome, thrice welcome brave 
men. Words of mine are too feeble to 
express the emotions with which we 
greet the loyal and the brave, who having 
sacredly kept their vow ''to rescue 
our country, to save her or die," who, 
having dared all that man can dare, and 
bared their brows in the face of death 
on the battle-fields of this terrible war, 
now come back to us to enjoy with us 
the fruits of those victories which their 
valor has achieved. Soldiers of this se- 
cond revolution in behalf of self-govern- 



u 



J^ 



meiit, your country extends to you to- 
day the hand of greeting". You have 
filled Avell and nobly the high vocation 
to which your country called you. You 
went forth upon a holy mission, bearing 
to the hosts of treason "a fiery gospel 
writ in burnished rows of steel." Be- 
fore your terrible x)reacliing of that Gos- 
pel you have seen the slave-pampered, 
haughty aristocracy of the South prick- 
ed in the heart and pleading for mercy 
and pardon at the hands of that Gov- 
ernment they so recently affected to de- 
spise. You liave vindicated for all time 
the most sacred principles of govern- 
Jiient. With a heel of iron have you 
crushed the head of that great serpent 
Slavery, which for so many years had 
been slowly winding jts sinewey coils 
around the fair form of our noble com- 
monwealth. Through your invincible 
gallantry, displayed upon the battle- 
fields of this war, the principles of the 
TAOvoIution of 1776 have been carried out 
and made triumphant, the nation is re- 
deemed, the rebellion put down, trai- 
tor's subdued, the integrity of the Union 
secured for all time. Slavery at an end, 
and the nation once more started on its 
cai'eer and grandeur and glory, only 
\ strengtened and purified by the fiery or- 
deaFof war. Soldiers of Freedom, tlie 
proud consciousuess of these glorious, 
results carries with it its own reward.— 
Gome back, then, to the pursuits of peace, 
followed by tiie blessings of a grateful 
country. May your days be long in the 
land which your intrepidity has rescued 
from impending ruin, and may that Di- 
vine Providence that shielded your 
heads in the day of battle still protect 
you through all the scenes of life, and at 
last give you ready admission to the 
company of the good and the brave 
whose names are written in Pleaven. 

Fellow-citizens, when we turn our 
eyes from beholding the past and look 
forward to the great and sublime future 
that opens before our country, how do 
our hearts fill with pride at what our 
country is and at what she is yet to be- 
come. If there is any earthly vision, 
which, to me, is brighter than all others, 
it is that which I see when I look for- 
ward to the future in which this great 
nation shall go on developing her 
power and material resources, increasing 
in virtue and intelligence, and working 
out to its ultimate results the problem 
of self-government. In that great day, 
which is yet to come, when those exhaust- 



less material resources whicli the God 
of Nature has scattered about us on ev- 
ery side with a lavish hand shall be gath- 
ered up and made tributary to our nation- 
al wealth ; when these vast prairies shall 
garner all their tecrning harvests into 
the nations storehouse; when the mighty 
wilderness of the West, whose virgin 
soil is still untrodden by the foot of civi- 
lization, shall bud and blossom as the 
rose; when our broad acres shall dis- 
close their still latent fertility, and our 
rocks and mountains shall give up all 
their yet undiscovered mineral wealth ; 
when industry, ingenuity and invention 
shall have exhausted all the apj)liance3 
of mechanical skill, and the vast oceans 
shall be specked all over with the sails 
of our commerce, then shall we begin tf> 
find a realization of the great destiny 
which lies before us. With only the ra- 
tio of increase in population which ban 
been exhibited all through our past his- 
tory, the man is now born who will live 
to see the stars and stripes floating over 
a population numerically greater than the 
present ))opulation of all christen 
dom combined. Our material wealth i.-. 
increasing and is bound to increase in a 
ratio more rapid still. With such vigor- 
ous growth with intelligence universal- 
ly diffused, with such rewards following 
well-doing as will prompt men to the 
practice of virtue, with equal rights 
guaranteed to all men, even the humblest 
and the great principles of our civilizp- 
tion continuing to control and permeat 
our national life, our nation starts hence- 
forth upon a career of grandeur an*, 
glory to achieve a future grander than 
our hearts have found strength to con- 
ceive. Then still united ; then with the 
proud old flag still high advanced, the 
bands of our National Union encircling 
the North and the South, the East and 
the West, and the spii'it of 1776 still con- 
tinuing to preside over and control us, 
shall this nation remain now and forever 

ONE AND INSEPARABLE. 

Our strength is and ever must be in 
our union. Travelers from the ruins of 
old Rome inform us that amid the ruins 
of old temples and the decaying frag- 
ments of broken columns and the pilas- 
ters there stands a noble arch. About it 
on ever side are the desolations which 
time has wrought, but there stands that 
arch unmoved, every stone in its i)lace, 
and the cap-stone in its proper position. 
The desolations of war and the mighty 
tramp of the centuries have passed over 



12 



it, but there it stands solitary and sub- 
lime. Why stands that ancient arch to- 
day ? Why has it not perished with the 
other monuments of human greatness 
by which it was once surrounded? Its 
strength and stability exist in its union. 
Take from that arch a single stone ; 
strike from any part a section, however 
ismall, and it falls at once an undistin- 
guishable mass of ruins. So is it with 
Miis nation of ours. So long as we are 
united ; so long as every State remains 
true to the Union, and occupies its ap- 
propriate place in our grand old Nation- 
al Arch, so long the Repulic will stand, 
only strengthened and solidified by the 
march of years. My countrymen be 



true to the Union. Guard it as the palla- 
dium of our national existence. Let it 
be first and foremost in every system of 
political faith. Watch jealously every 
attempt from whatever quarter to weaii- 
en or undermine it. And if ever in the 
distant future the impious hand of trea- 
son shall be again raised to dissolve this 
Union, and to strike the keystone from 
out our grand old National Arch, as in 
the case of the last rebellion over which 
we have so signally triumphed, so may 
God grant that then "a million gleam- 
ing swords may leap from their rests 
and point every way to guard the tem- 
ple of our liberties." 








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